I'm sitting here listening to Howler monkeys calling to one another in hills that surround us. I'm sure that while it's novel to us, that it could get quite old as they get can get quite noisy. When we pulled into the bay one announced our arrival very loudly. That was neat.
We left on the heals of a tropical wave which had passed through during the night. A tropical wave is basically a low pressure trough on N/S axis which is generated every 3 days by a low pressure "pump" over Africa. They typically move to the W at about 15 kts. Some are benign, others pack a punch. Tropical storms/hurricanes grow out of these. Most of the time you just get high winds, rain and vivid clouds from them.
We had a fast sail over here as a result of the pressure differential caused by the wave moving through. We had 20-25 kts on the stern, which dropped as the wave pulled away. Unfortunately it built back up as we approached the shore and as the day progressed, which is normal for around here. It was dead on the stern, which combined with 6' seas, threatened to jybe us. What's funny is that I was reading my report from 2 years ago, and the report was exactly the same. We did manage to hit 10.5 kts while surfing waves.
The approach here is really quite spectacular. The peninsula which contains Puerto Escondido is a several mile long ridge that is very narrow and rises a couple hundred feet out of the water. Two large rocks rise out of the water at the end and the waves crash into them sending plumes of water into the sky. Beautiful, but you don't want to get too close!
We had little moderation of the wind as we worked our way down the peninsula, so I dropped the jib running down-wind as I didn't want to be on the bow dropping it with 6' seas and 25+ kts of wind. When we arrived at the bay we did a quick about face and I dropped the sail while Sue steered into the wind & seas. That was "exciting" for her! Then I headed into the bay, which has a 200' wide entrance between submerged rocks. With the surf it was easy to see where I needed to steer, but you sure wouldn't want to lose the engine going through there.
Puerto Escondido isn't a real port. It's a beautiful bay with no inhabitants. The northern end of the bay is steep hills covered by palm trees and the other end is low white sand beaches. We had good holding in the NE corner in about 10-14'.
Today it's a 60 mile sail to Cabo Tres Puntas and then it's on to the Rio Dulce.
-- Geoff & Sue
For the cruiser:
15-54.750N 87-38.088W Outside of bay
15-54.581N 87-38.040W Directly between the rocks leading into the bay. You're inside once you pass here.
15-54.58N 87-37.91W Anchorage
Log ID: 515
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